"Draw!" Yumi drew the first card, signaling the start of the duel.
"I Normal Summon, Elemental HERO Bubbleman!"
A surge of bubbles erupted upward, and the familiar blue aquatic HERO landed on the field with a light splash, striking a ready stance.
[Elemental HERO Bubbleman, 800 ATK]
"Bubbleman's effect, when he is summoned and I have no other cards on my field, I get to draw two cards!" He drew smoothly.
"Next, I activate Hero Mask, I target my Bubbleman and send Avian from my deck to my grave." Pulling out his deck, Yumi placed the feather hero into his graveyard. "Until the end of this turn, my Bubbleman will be treated as Avian."
He didn't pause. His hand slammed a new spell onto the Duel Disk, its hologram spiraling upward behind him.
"Get ready, because I activate the Spell, One-for-All Fusion!" A massive fusion vortex opened, roaring behind Yumi and Jaden like a storm of blinding color.
"With this, I fuse the Avian on my field and Burstinatrix in my hand!"
Burstinatrix flickered into existence beside the transformed Bubbleman, offering a fierce grin before the vortex pulled them in, their silhouettes stretching and merging.
"Now, One-for-All Fusion's effect. When I fusion summon, I can discard a card," Yumi continues, tossing a card to the graveyard without hesitation. "I then can Special Summon another Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck that can be Fusion Summoned with the same materials, and I can use this effect twice!"
Yumi turned his head slightly, not even needing to speak.Jaden smirked.
"I'll also discard a card!" Jaden flicked one into his own graveyard in sync.
"Fusion Summon!" / "Fusion Summon!"
From the vortex, not one, not two, but three HEROes emerged, exploding out in pillars of flame.
[Elemental HERO Inferno, 2300 ATK]
[Elemental HERO Burst Wingman, 2100 ATK]
[Elemental HERO Flame Wingman, 2100 ATK]
They landed shoulder to shoulder, their combined presence radiating heat and pressure like a frontline army. Inferno clenched his fiery fists; Burst Wingman unfurled his burning wings; Flame Wingman's dragon arm let out a piercing roar.
Across the field, Kagemaru didn't flinch. His arms remained folded behind him, his expression calm.
"Impressive," he admitted. His voice was calm, but his eyes gleamed. "A single turn, and you bring out three Fusion Monsters."
Yumi snapped two more cards onto his Duel Disk. "I set two cards face-down."
Twin holograms materialized behind the trio of HEROes, forming the foundation of an aggressive formation.
"Then I activate Take Over 5! Sent the top five cards from my deck to my grave." His graveyard slot glowed as he sent the top five cards of his deck into his grave.
"Turn end."
"Alright then, my turn. Draw!" Kagemaru drew his first card with a smooth, practiced motion, eyes narrowing with confidence.
"I activate the Spell, Painful Choice."
A cold smirk tugged at his lips as he slid five cards from his deck. "I select five cards, reveal them, and you must choose one to add to my hand. The remaining four go to the graveyard."
He raised the five chosen cards one by one, letting the holograms hover above his hand:
Sakuretsu Armor, Jar of Greed, Fake Trap, Thunder of Ruler, Dark Sacrifice.
"I chose Sakuretsu Armor!" Yumi didn't hesitate and picked the first option.
By now, it has already become a running joke in the Yu-Gi-Oh community that those who use Sakuretsu Armor would never win that duel.
Although he already figured out that those traps won't get used normally anyway, so there is no harm in picking the funny option.
Kagemaru added Sakuretsu Armor to his hand and sent the other four traps sliding into his graveyard with a low chuckle. "Next. I set three Trap Cards."
Three holographic cards appeared at his feet.
"And now," he continued, lifting his arm high, "I tribute all three of my set cards!"
The face-down cards burned red-hot, glowing until they disintegrated into streaks of crimson energy that shot into the sky.
"Behold it, Darkness! The Sacred Beast whose power eclipses that of ordinary monsters!"
The air began to vibrate. The ground cracked violently. A column of flame erupted behind Kagemaru like a volcanic explosion.
"The Sacred Beast of hellfire that purifies all before it, Uria, Lord of Searing Flames!"
The clouds overhead ignited to burning red as a colossal vortex of heat tore open the sky. From within it, a serpentine demon, horned, winged, radiant with molten fire, uncoiled itself and descended.
"Uria, Lord of Searing Flames, gains 1000 ATK and DEF for each Trap Card in my graveyard." Kagemaru's smirk deepened as Uria's power surged through the air.
[Uria, Lord of Searing Flames, 0 -> 7000 ATK]
"I activate Uria's effect! Once per turn, I destroy one of your face-down Spell or Traps!"
Uria's maw opened wide, releasing a concentrated blast of blazing fire.
The flames hit Yumi's set card, shattering it into fragments and revealing Rainbow Life.
"Now, battle! Uria destroys Elemental HERO Burst Wingman!" Kagemaru's order, seeing that out of the three HEROes he can target, Burst Wingman's Quick effect is the most troublesome one.
Kagemaru had done his study about the Kawakami siblings beforehand, so he knew some of their cards' effects and strategy.
"I activate Burst Wingman's effect, I target a monster I control, and increase its ATK by 1000!" Yumi said before waving his hand as his other face-down card flipped open. "I chain this with my Quickplay spell, Life Hack! I target my Burst Wingman and make its ATK equal to your life points! But the damage you take this turn is halved!"
[Elemental HERO Burst Wingman, 2100 -> 8000 -> 9000 ATK]
"What!?" Kagemaru's composure cracked for the first time as Burst Wingman soared upward, surrounded by swirling orange fire, and slammed directly into Uria's burning form.
The shockwave ripped across the field.
[Kagemaru, LP 8000 -> 7000]
Kagemaru steadied himself, the edges of his hair whipping in the wind left behind by the collision.
"As expected of you… Darkness." He exhaled, voice low. "Even a single facedown becomes lethal in your hands."
He lifted another card.
"I activate Swords of Revealing Light!"
A radiant barrier of floating swords descended between them, forming a shimmering cage of light.
"You cannot attack for the next three turns."
Finally, he set one last card.
"I set one card and end my turn."
"My turn, draw!" Jaden snapped his card up, his expression sharpening for once.
"I banish Take Over 5 from our graveyards to draw one more card!"
The spell dissolved into shimmering digital fragments as he drew again.
"Here I go! First, I activate R - Righteous Justice! Since we control three Elemental HEROes, I can destroy both your Swords of Revealing Light and your face-down card!"
Twin beams of radiant energy shot out, slicing apart the floating swords and blowing away Kagemaru's set card.
But at the same moment, the destroyed trap flipped up:
"I activate the Trap, Graverobber! Now I can target a card in your graveyard and activate it!" Kagemaru announced, smirking. A sneaky little purple goblin popped up, holding Yumi's destroyed Rainbow Life like stolen candy.
A barrier of shimmering rainbow light wrapped around Kagemaru.
"Don't attack, Rainbow Life make it so he would gain Life Points instead of losing them." Yumi said quickly, not wanting Jaden to accidentally slip up and heal the enemy.
"Got it, AIBO!" Jaden gave a thumbs-up, then immediately focused again, scanning his hand for the next move.
"I Normal Summon Card Trooper in Defense Position!"
A small, clunky red-blue robot materialized, hunching down with its arms folded.
[Card Trooper, 400 DEF]
"Next, I set two cards face down!"
Two fresh cards appeared behind their four monsters.
"And now Card Trooper's effect! I send the top three cards of my deck to the graveyard to power it up!"
The robot's gears spun wildly as three cards shot into the grave. Even with Trooper in defense mode, the real effect was clear, Jaden was loading his graveyard for later.
Then he grinned.
"And while I'm at it, I activate Take Over 5! I send the top five cards of my deck to the grave!"
Five more cards were milled.
"Turn end."
"My turn, draw!"
Kagemaru snapped his card up with a grin that was almost too wide.
"I activate Pot of Greed. This allows me to draw two cards."
The classic green jar shattered as Kagemaru slid two new cards into his hand. Without hesitation, he lifted one of them, a Trap.
"By discarding a Trap Card, I can revive the previously destroyed Uria, Lord of Searing Flames!"
He tossed the card into his graveyard. A pillar of blistering heat erupted behind him, melting the air itself. From the swirling inferno, the massive crimson serpent reformed, coiling upward with a thunderous, echoing roar.
[Uria, Lord of Searing Flames, 7000 -> 9000 ATK]
"Now Uria's effect activates! I target that face-down card, destroy it!"
He pointed to Jaden's right-most set card.
"I activate-" Jaden began, but...
"Futile."
Kagemaru cut him off with a dismissive flick of his hand. "The targeted card cannot respond to Uria's effect."
"I know." Jaden smiled, eyes sharp with confidence. He pointed at his other set card. "Which is why I chain this card instead! I activate my Quickplay Spell, Quick Summon!"
A green flare of light shot up from the card.
"And in response to that, I activate the targeted card, Hero Barrier!"
The card Kagemaru targeted flipped up deliberately, shocking the spectators.
"Impossible…" Kagemaru hissed.
Jaden nodded proudly. "I learned this from AIBO. Your monster only stops that card from responding to your effect. So I chained a different card to your effect… and then chained the targeted card to my own effect."
He slammed a card onto his Duel Disk. "I Normal Summon Elemental HERO Clayman!"
[Elemental HERO Clayman, 2000 DEF]
Clayman crouched defensively in front of the HERO lineup.
Kagemaru inhaled slowly… then grinned.
"Very impressive, Jaden Yuki. It seems I really underestimated the Slifers. But tricks won't save you."
He raised another card with twisted reverence.
"I Normal Summon Chaos Summoning Beast!"
A small, shadowy demon appeared, its body constantly shifting like living soot.
[Chaos Summoning Beast, 0 ATK]
"Now I activate its effect! By tributing it, I can Special Summon a Sacred Beast from my hand!"
He slammed a golden card onto his Duel Disk.
The sky split apart. Yellow lightning tore through the darkness, violent, enraged, merciless. The very ground trembled as a pillar of divine thunder struck down.
"The merciless judgment from above, descend! Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder!"
A colossal skeletal golden demon, wreathed in electricity, descended from the storm clouds like a vengeful god, its large, massive demonic wings spread wide.
[Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder, 4000 ATK]
"Now, by banishing the Chaos Summoning Beast in my grave, and adding Fallen Paradise to my hand." The demon disappeared from his grave, as Kagemaru added a new card to his hand.
"Now I activate the field spell, Fallen Paradise!"
The battlefield shattered.
The academy grounds dissolved, replaced by a cosmic wasteland, a broken dimension with endless black skies and floating ruins. Only Kagemaru's glowing Sacred Beasts lit the void.
"Fallen Paradise's effect! When I have at least one of three Sacred Beasts on the field, once per turn, I can draw two cards." He drew, smirking with increasing satisfaction.
"Battle, go! Hamon attack Burst Wingman!"
The massive demon roared, unleashing a powerful thunder toward the fire hero. It tore through the void like a laser, only to be blocked by the effect of Hero Barrier, which negates one of Kagemaru's attacks.
Although the attack was blocked, Kagemaru's smirk widened. "Then Uria will finish it. Uria, burn Burst Wingman to ash!"
Uria unleashed a massive fireball, blinding and heatless, yet intensely real. As the massive fireball grew closer, Jaden swung his left hand forward as a ghostly figure jumped out from his graveyard.
"I activate the effect Necro Gardna! Sent to the grave by Take Over 5 last turn! By banishing it, I can negate Uria's attack!"
The ghostly warrior materialized, crossing its arms as it absorbed the fireball and disintegrated.
"Persistent brat…" Kagemaru's eyebrow twitched.
He waved his hand dismissively.
"No matter. I set one card. Turn end."
A new face-down card materialized behind the two towering Beasts.
"My turn, draw!" Yumi snapped his wrist, drawing a card before immediately raising his hand. "I remove the two Take Over 5 still in my deck, along with the one in our graveyard, to draw three cards!"
Light flashed across his Duel Disk as three more cards slid cleanly into his hand.
Without hesitation, he pulled out another card.
"I activate the Spell, Hero Gift! For every HERO monster I control, I draw one card."He gestured toward his crowded field: Inferno, Burst Wingman, Flame Wingman, and Clayman, four HEROes total.
Four cards flew into his hand in a clean, practiced motion.
"Next, Polymerization! I fuse the Burst Wingman on my field with Sparkman in my hand!"
Sparkman materialized beside Burst Wingman. Both heroes launched upward, pulled into the swirling vortex of fusion.
"Fusion Summon! Elemental HERO Shining Blaze Wingman!"
A figure dove from the vortex, green skin encased in gleaming silver-white armor, radiant white flame wings unfurling with force.
[Elemental HERO Shining Blaze Wingman, 2500 ATK]
"Shining Blaze Wingman gains 300 ATK for each Elemental HERO in our graveyard."
Both graveyards lit up, ghostly silhouettes of fallen HEROes rising.
Bubbleman. Avian. Burstinatrix. Ocean. Necroshade. Wildheart. Burst Wingman. Sparkman.
[Elemental HERO Shining Blaze Wingman, 2500 -> 4900 ATK]
"I activate Shining Blaze Wingman's effect to increase Flame Wingman's ATK by 1000!"
Everyone: "!!?"
[Elemental HERO Flame Wingman, 2100 -> 3100 ATK]
"Next, I activate Card Trooper's effect and switch it to attack position!" Yumi continues, switching the small robot to attack position and sending the top three cards from his deck to his grave.
[Card Trooper, 400 -> 1900 ATK]
"I will also switch Clayman to attack position!"
[Elemental HERO Clayman, 800 ATK]
Now, even Jaden was confused, not understanding why his AIBO switched Clayman to the attack position.
Seeing the lineup of monster Kagemaru scoffed. "It's pointless, there is no way those weak monsters can ever defeat my three Sacred Beasts. They are all powerless."
Hearing their monsters being insulted, Yumi and Jaden grew angry as they both shared a deep connection to Duel Spirits.
Jaden began. "Our monsters might be powerless alone. But when we work together..."
Yumi finished. "We make the impossible possible, turning despair into hope and defeat into victory!"
"Spell card, Brave Attack! I target Flame Wingman! He gains the combined ATK of all my other face-up Attack Position monsters!"
Everyone: "NANI!?"
Card Trooper, Clayman, Inferno, Shining Blaze Wingman, one by one, each monster's energy surged into Flame Wingman.
A dramatic aura erupted around the HERO, the whole scene feeling suspiciously like a Super Sentai power-up sequence.
[Elemental HERO Flame Wingman, 3100 -> 3900 -> 5800 -> 8100 -> 13,000 ATK]
"Trap card, Taunt!" Kagemaru barked, slamming his card open. "I target Uria! As long as it stays on my field, you can only target it for attack!"
[Uria, Lord of Searing Flames, 9000 -> 10,000 ATK]
"Tch!" Yumi looked visibly annoyed seeing that his plan to OTK this old man had failed. "Flame Wingman attack Uria! Supernova Shoot!"
Empowered by his ally, both dead and alive, Flame Wingman rocketed forward, engulfed in blazing crimson flames, crashing into the towering red demon.
"Ahhhh!" Kagemaru was hurled backward by the shockwave.
[Kagemaru, LP 7000 -> 4000]
Since Flame Wingman only inflicts effect damage equal to the destroyed monster's original ATK, and Uria's original ATK was zero, the old man lived to wheeze another turn.
Kagemaru coughed out a laugh, pushing himself upright.
"Just as I fear... you're too dangerous to be left alive." Kagemaru said through gritted teeth, panting heavily.
Then he smiled, "If I remember correctly, Brave Attack was once used by the First Generation Duel King, Yugi Muto. Once you end your battle phase, all your monsters will be destroyed!"
"You're somewhat right. Brave Attack indeed destroyed all of my attack position monsters once I end my battle phase." Yumi said calmly before raising a card in his hand.
"I activate Kuritrapper in my hand. By discarding this monster, I can directly activate a Trap card from my hand if possible."
The tiny Kuriboh, wielding a shovel, popped up briefly before being discarded. Yumi then placed down a card from his hand.
"Trap card, Zero Gravity. Switch the battle position of all monsters on the field."
A pulse rippled across the arena.
[Elemental HERO Flame Wingman, 1200 DEF]
[Elemental HERO Inferno, 1600 DEF]
[Elemental HERO Shining Blaze Wingman, 2100 DEF]
[Elemental HERO Clayman, 2000 DEF]
[Card Trooper, 400 DEF]
[Hamon, Lord of Striking Thunder, 4000 DEF]
"Amazing AIBO! Now Brave Attack's side effect won't destroy our monsters anymore!" Jaden cheered.
Since there aren't any Attack Position monsters on Yumi and Jaden's field now, the side effect of Brave Attack was completely bypassed.
"I set two cards, turn end." Yumi placed down the last two cards in his hand before ending his turn.
Kagemaru: "..."